Data-center law in Cuba
National jurisdiction · as of 2026-09-05
Cuba has no data-center-specific siting, permitting, or utility statute; a data-center project sponsored by foreign capital is governed by the general foreign-investment framework of Ley 118/2014 Ley de la Inversión Extranjera, which supersedes the 1995 Ley No. 77 of the same name.
The law authorizes special tax incentives for eligible mixed enterprises and international economic association contracts, and separately conditions every foreign-investment approval on the State's own finding that the project does not affect national defense, the nation's heritage, or the environment, with the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment deciding whether a full environmental impact assessment is required before an environmental license issues.
The law also recognizes that the State may authorize Special Development Zones with their own incentive regimes, of which the Mariel Special Development Zone, created by a separate decree-law, is the best known; that decree-law's own provisions are not described here.
01
Instruments on record
2 instruments on record, grouped by the family of approval each one governs.
Environmental review
What impact review must precede approval, and who leads it?
Ley 118/2014, Ley de la Inversión Extranjera, environmental evaluation and licensing
In force
Ley 118/2014 Ley de la Inversión Extranjera, arts. 20, 55-57
Effective 2014-06-27 · Applies to private
Article 20 conditions the State's authorization of any foreign investment, including one for a data-center or other computing facility, on the project not affecting national defense and security, the nation's heritage, or the environment.
Article 55 requires the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Investment to submit every investment proposal it receives to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment (CITMA), which evaluates the proposal's environmental merits and decides whether an environmental impact assessment must be carried out and whether an environmental license must issue, and sets the control and inspection regime that follows.
Article 56 empowers CITMA to order remedial measures for environmental harm, risk, or danger arising from the investment, and holds the responsible natural or legal person liable to restore the prior environmental condition and to pay compensation or reparation.
Source: Full text of law
Public agreements
What fiscal agreements attach a data center to its host jurisdiction?
Ley 118/2014, Ley de la Inversión Extranjera, special tax regime
In force
Ley 118/2014 Ley de la Inversión Extranjera, arts. 34-37
Effective 2014-06-27 · Applies to private
Chapter XII sets a special tax regime for mixed enterprises and the national and foreign investor-parties to an international economic association contract, including one hosting a data-center or similar computing facility. Article 35 exempts a foreign investor-partner from personal income tax on dividends or profits from the business. Article 36 sets the profits tax at fifteen percent of net taxable profit, well below Cuba's standard corporate rate.
It also exempts the enterprise from profits tax for eight years from its constitution, a period the Council of Ministers may extend, and exempts reinvested profits from the tax, though the rate can be raised by up to fifty percent where the investment exploits natural resources. Article 37 gives a fifty-percent discount on the sales tax otherwise owed on the enterprise's transactions.
Source: Full text of law
Every entry cites the instrument it describes.
None of it is legal advice: verify a citation before relying on it. Full
sourcing: read the methodology. The rest of the
record: all jurisdictions.